Zimbabwe land
reforms target wildlife reserves

HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwean authorities will force the country's
predominantly white wildlife park owners to join with black partners in a
new round of controversial land reforms, state media said on
Wednesday.

"Government is now implementing the wildlife-based land reform
policy after five years of resistance from conservancy owners," The Herald
newspaper reported.

"This will see 59 indigenous people getting
leases from the government or sharing conservancies with white former
owners."

Parks and wildlife authority director-general Vitalis Chadenga
said the project was "one of the unfinished businesses of the country's land
reform programme."

Under land reforms launched by long-time President
Robert Mugabe in 2000, Zimbabwean authorities seized farms from thousands of
white owners in what Mugabe called a correction of historical imbalances in
the former British colony.

The often chaotic and violent land
reforms, led by pro-Mugabe militants, were blamed for a food crisis in the
one-time regional breadbasket as the majority of new owners lacked the means
and skills to farm.

Zimbabwe
to nationalize mining sector, says official

Harare - A senior official in Zimbabwe on Wednesday said the
government has resolved nationalize 51 per cent of the country's key mining
sector to form a sovereign wealth fund to finance
development.

Minister of Youths, Empowerment and Indigenization, Saviour
Kasukuwere, made the comments to delegates attending an investment
conference in the capital Harare.

'This Friday we are gazetting the
minimum threshold for the mining sector. We need the 51 per cent (equity) to
come into our sovereign wealth fund,' Kasakuwere said.

'We are all
agreed as a government,' he added.

The formation of a power-sharing
government some two years ago has brought about some economic stability, but
investors remain jittery over the controversial 'indigenization' policy
which Mugabe says is meant to empower black Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe has
minerals such as diamonds, uranium, chrome, platinum and gold. Major
companies such as Anglo American, Implats and Rio Tinto.

According to
Kasukuwere, earnings from mineral exports in 2010 amounted to 1.7 billion US
dollars, about 30 per cent of Zimbabwe's estimated gross domestic product.
Government revenue from the industry totalled only 4 million US dollars, he
said.

Tsvangirai
denies Zimbabwe plans to nationalize mines

Earlier, a senior official aligned to Tsvangirai's coalition
partner President Robert Mugabe said the government has resolved to
nationalize 51 per cent of the key sector to form a sovereign wealth fund to
finance development.

Minister of Youths, Empowerment and
Indigenization, Saviour Kasukuwere, made the comments to delegates attending
an investment conference in the capital Harare on Wednesday. He and other
members of Mugabe's camp have made the suggestions previously
too.

'This Friday we are gazetting the minimum threshold for the mining
sector. We need the 51 per cent (equity) to come into our sovereign wealth
fund,' Kasakuwere said.

'We are all agreed as a government,' he
added.

But Tsvangirai's spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka, denied there had
been agreement in the cabinet.

'A major decision cannot be taken
without the approval of the prime minister,' he said.

The formation
of a power-sharing government some two years ago has brought about some
economic stability, but investors remain jittery over the controversial
'indigenization' policy which Mugabe says is meant to empower black
Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe has minerals such as diamonds, uranium, chrome,
platinum and gold. Major companies such as Anglo American, Impala Platinum
and Rio Tinto.

According to Kasukuwere, earnings from mineral exports in
2010 amounted to 1.7 billion US dollars, about 30 per cent of Zimbabwe`s
estimated gross domestic product. Government revenue from the industry
totalled only 4 million US dollars, he said.

Wildlife
land reform policy will have huge impact on tourism

A leading wildlife expert in Zimbabwe has warned
that government’s push to implement the controversial wildlife based land
reform will have ‘a huge’ impact on tourism.

Johnny Rodrigues,
chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force told SW Radio Africa on
Wednesday that wildlife is the hallmark of tourism in Zimbabwe and any
further disturbances to the industry will kill off the sector.

‘It’s
a pity people are being used as political tools. Elections are coming and
this is why you have people who support the regime going into these
conservancies. Genuine conservationists had the welfare of animals at
heart.

But to suggest that bringing in new faces aligned to one political
party and hope they will turn around wildlife conservancy as part of this
new policy is just fantasy and pure greed,’ Rodrigues
said.

Authorities announced on Tuesday that they will now start forcing
the predominantly white conservancy owners to join with black partners in a
new round of so-called land reforms.

Parks and Wildlife Authority
Director-General, Vitalis Chadenga, described the new policy as ‘one of the
unfinished businesses of the land reform program’. It has mainly targeted
ranches and conservancies situated in the southern half of
Zimbabwe.

Chadenga told the state controlled Herald the wildlife-based
land reform policy will see at least 60 indigenous people getting leases
from the government or ‘sharing’ conservancies with white former owners.
Sharing means the owners will be forced to give up 51% of their
shares.

Rodrigues said wildlife management is a specialized field
and people who were qualified to care for the wildlife have been driven off
their properties to make way for people who, in most cases, have no
experience in the field.

‘A decade ago, we had 640 game ranches in
Zimbabwe but its now gone down to five. Of 14 conservancies before 2000, the
last one was grabbed only recently, leaving none at all. Animals are being
killed indiscriminately and there’s a lot of commercial poaching as well,’
Rodrigues added.

Unscrupulous hunters and safari operators from South
Africa and Botswana are targeting Zimbabwe and have reportedly been
responsible for hunting the very few animals left. They are also reportedly
buying hunts from the new settlers, who have no idea what hunts are really
worth so they are paid a very small sum, allowing huge profits to be made by
the unscrupulous hunters.

‘Tourism is being hugely affected by this.
They are spending millions marketing tourism and telling the world they want
the tourists to come back. The tourists aren’t going to come back because
the basics and principals of the industry have been thrown out the window,’
according to Rodrigues.

Two years ago the head of the United Nations
programme to protect endangered species said that Zimbabwean security forces
were spearheading the poaching of elephants and rhinos in the
country.

Willem Wijnstekers, secretary-general of the UN Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species, said that between 2008 – 2010
security forces had killed about 200 rhinos, putting that population on the
verge of extinction in Zimbabwe.

Police Quizz Two As They Suppress Zlhr
Meeting

HRD’s
Alert

9 March 2011

Police
in Chinhoyi on Wednesday 9 March 2011 detained and quizzed two employees of
Youth Dialogue Action Network and suppressed a meeting organized by Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) on human rights and
constitutionalism.

Police
detained Owen Dhliwayo, the board chairperson of Youth Dialogue
Action Network and Catherine Mukwapati, the organisation’s
coordinator, who had partnered ZLHR in organising a training on human rights and
constitutionalism for human rights defenders in Chinhoyi, Mashonaland West
province.

Dhliwayo
and Mukwapati were taken by the police from a church building at United Church
of Christ (UCCZ), where the training was underway and detained at Chemagamba
police station for four hours.

About 60 human rights defenders from various organisations had
attended the meeting which was disrupted by the police, two hours into the
meeting.

The
police, who detained Dhliwayo and Mukwapati from 10:00 am to 14:00 pm took note
of their identity numbers and residential addresses and advised them that they
were going to make a follow up with them for allegedly organizing the meeting in
Chinhoyi.

The
police were reportedly interested in “quizzing” Tineyi Mukweva,
a programmes assistant of ZLHR.

82 year old languishes in prison as judge postpones
hearing of AGs appeal against Hon. Mwonzora and villagers’ bail
order

Via ZLHR Press
Release: An 82 year-old villager is
amongst 24 detainees who are languishing in remand prison after High Court Judge
Justice Susan Mavangira on Wednesday 9 March 2011 postponed the
hearing of an appeal filed by the Attorney General (AG)’s Office challenging a
bail order granted to the Nyanga villagers.

Rwisai Nyakauro aged 82 years,
who resides in Nyakauro Village is among 24 detainees who are detained at Mutare
Remand Prison including Nyanga North Member of Parliament and Constitution
Select Committee (COPAC) co-chairperson Hon. Douglas Mwonzora
pending the consideration of an appeal against their bail order, which was
granted on Monday 21 February 2011 by Magistrate Ignatio
Mhene.

Justice Mavangira presided over the appeal
hearing on Wednesday 9 March 2011 after defence lawyers took the extraordinary
task of collecting the record of proceedings from Nyanga Magistrates Court and
transcribed it for the Judge after she had noted that the record of proceedings
was incomplete as some pages were missing.

The Judge postponed the hearing of the appeal to
Thursday 10 March 2011 to allow Edmore Nyazamba, a law officer
from the AG’s Office to respond to some point in limine raised by Hon. Mwonzora
and the villagers’ lawyers Trust Maanda, Tawanda Zhuwarara and Jeremiah
Bamu.

The villagers’ lawyers pointed out that the
State’s appeal was not properly before Justice Mavangira as Nyazamba had not
served a copy on Magistrate Mhene in conformity with High Court bail rules to
allow him to make a comment if he so wished.

In his submissions Nyazamba argued that the bail
order should be withdrawn because Magistrate Mhene misdirected himself by
granting bail to the villagers.

Defence lawyers insisted that Magistrate Mhene
had not erred in granting bail to Hon. Mwonzora and the villagers and hence the
State’s appeal should be dismissed

This entry was
posted by Sokwanele on Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 at 7:04
pm

SA
resumes fight to keep Zim election report secret

South Africa’s Presidency has resumed its fight to keep a report on
Zimbabwe’s 2002 elections secret, filing an appeal against a Supreme Court
order to release the details.

The Mail & Guardian newspaper has
been trying to have the report released since 2008, saying the information
gathered by South Africa about Zimbabwe’s election was of enormous public
interest. In 2002 the then President Thabo Mbeki, commissioned Judge Sisi
Khampepe and Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke to visit Zimbabwe and
report back on the state of the election. The report was handed over to
Mbeki but never made public, although the former President insisted the
electoral process in Zimbabwe was completely democratic.

The
newspaper’s efforts to get the report were repeatedly denied and eventually
the High Court was brought in to rule on the matter. The Court ruled in the
newspaper’s favour in June last year, ordering the government to hand over
the report within 10 days. But the Presidency then announced that it would
appeal the ruling.

In December that appeal was dismissed by the Supreme
Court after a unanimous decision by five judges, who said that there was no
need to change the High Court’s findings on the matter. But the government
immediately stated its intentions to appeal, and made submissions to the
Constitutional Court last week.

The Presidency has argued that
sufficient evidence was placed before the courts in justifying their refusal
of access to the report. The case is set to be heard in May.

Mthwakazi
Leaders Treason Case Postponed

Bulawayo, March
09,2011 - The refusal of remand hearing in Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF)
leaders’ treason case ended prematurely on Wednesday at Bulawayo regional
magistrate court after the defence team objected to the state’s move to
bring as witness a senior police officer who was present in court when the
hearing began.

The three MLF senior executive members Paul Siwela, John
Gazi and Charles Gumbo were arrested on Friday in different locations in
Bulawayo and were charged with treason after found distributing party
flyers.

On Tuesday a refusal of remand hearing began after their defence
team led by Advocate Lucas Nkomo made an application for bail before
regional magistrate John Masimba.

On Wednesday the state brought
three police officers from the Bulawayo Central police station’s Law and
Order Section to testify, but only two managed to give evidence in court
after the defence team objected against the third police officer to testify
which led to the adjournment of hearing.

“Your worship we are objecting
to the state’s idea of bringing Detective Sergeant George Ngwenya to testify
in this court, as he was seated in this court and listening when the
proceedings in this hearing began yesterday,” said Nkomo.

Magistrate
Masimba then called both the defence team and state into chambers before
adjourning the case to Thursday.

Two other police officers who
testified were Constable Patrice Nyanhete and Constable Alois Chidhakwa who
got the court into stitches when he said he did not know the real reason why
he arrested Gumbo.

The three MLF leaders were remanded in custody and
sent back to Khami Maximum Remand prison.

The militant and radical
MLF was launched in January this year and is advocating for the independence
of the Matabeleland region located in the southern part of Zimbabwe saying
the Ndebele speaking people of have been marginalized by the government for
too long and also face discrimination every day at work places and tertiary
institutions.

The call for Matabeleland secession from Zimbabwe appeared
to have been encouraged by events in South Sudan where people there voted
overwhelmingly to break away from mainland Sudan in a referendum.

Row
between Mkoba Teachers' College and Former Students Deepens

Gweru, March 09, 2011 - The row between Mkoba Teacher's
College (MTC) here and about 200 of its former students over refusal by the
college to grant them certificates, two years after graduation for
non-payment, is continuing with the students now living destitute
lives.

"The college has withheld our results and certificates because
we have not been able to pay school fees. I owe the school US$1200," said
one trained teacher who cannot find unemployment because of lack of a
certificate."What surprises me is that the college has refused to negotiate
on how we can solve the problem."

The student who refused to give his
name said him and over 200 others in the same predicament had tried to
negotiate with the college so that it could facilitate employment with
government and their salaries withheld until they repay their debts but this
was turned down.

"They are not getting anything from us as long as we are
not working because we do not have the money. They are not gaining anything
by holding on to our certificates except further impoverishing us,” said the
bitter teacher to-be.

Wilbert Muringani of the Progressive Teachers
Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) told Radio VOP that it was sad that an agreement
had not been reached at a time when most schools had temporary
teachers.

He also said the holding on to the results by the college
without the students being able to pay money did not help MTC in any way. He
however, said the teachers to be had not yet approached the
union.

The students lost their case in the court last year which ruled in
favour of the college and ordered them to pay the money so that they could
get hold of their certificates. The students had sought the assistance of
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

One of the lawyers who
represented the students, Brian Dube of Gundu,Mawarire and partners who is
also the Midlands Regional NANGO (National Association of Non-Governmental
Organisations) chairperson, added that it was unfortunate that the college
had refused this arrangement which,"would help the college in recovering
money owed by students, and in return the students are able to clear their
debt to the college," Dube explained.

MTC principal Florence Dube
insisted when approached by Radio VOP for a comment that it was a
requirement that students pay fees.

She said when the students enrolled
into college, their admission forms clearly stated that they should pay
fees. She would not comment on why the college refused to facilitate the
students’ employment with government so that they could re-pay their
debt.

Dube said it was saddening that in Zimbabwe, children were still
being punished for being poor.

"The teachers were not taking the
college to court so that they can be given their results without paying
fees. The students took the college to court so that they could get an
arrangement where the college could send confirmation of results to the
Ministry to confirm they are trained teachers so that they can be employed.
The students had agreed that they would want the college to arrange with the
Salary Service Bureau to have their salaries deposited into the college's
account to service the debt," Dube said.

Stop
meddling in education - Coltart

HARARE - The Minister of
Education, Sports and Culture, David Coltart has warned political parties
not to meddle in the education sector.

The Minister told Parliament
on Wednesday that the government will not allow war veterans to offer
history lessons of the liberation struggle to students in
schools.

He was responding to a question from Shepherd Mushonga, the
Member of Parliament for Mazowe in Mashonaland Central, who wanted to know
if it was now government policy to allow war veterans to teach history
lessons of the liberation struggle in schools.

The MP said he had a
letter from the headmaster of Kakora Secondary School in his constituency
from war veterans who had informed him they would visit the school this
week to to teach history.

“I have a letter from Mazowe written by the
headmaster of Kakora Secondary School confirming that the war veterans and
Zanu PF youths wanted to take over this school and I want to know whether it
is government to allow those acts to happen,’’ asked
Mushonga.

Coltart said the government did not allow unqualified and
untrained people to associate themselves with the education
sector.

“The political parties should not meddle in education. We should
not expose school children to politics as it is against the Education Act.
Schools should not be used for politics. I want the MP’s to support me in
trying to stop what is now happening,’’ said Coltart.

The Minister
said he was concerned by the high number of teacher transfers from schools
after intimidation by political party youths, especially in rural
areas.

Recently, Coltart took issue of reports that some school children
had been forced to take part in a competition to draw the portrait of
President Mugabe as part of events to mark the 21st February Movement
celebrations, a Zanu PF event that has been turned into a national one to
mark Mugabe’s birthday.

During the 2008 elections scores of teachers
fled rural schools after being beaten up and accused of supporting the
Movement For Democratic Change.

Court
in Mwonzora bail hearing

HARARE - High Court judge, Justice Susan Mavhangira, on
Wednesday heard submissions from both the defence and the state in the trial
of Nyanga North Member of Parliament, Douglas Mwonzora and 24 others who are
facing political violence charges.

“Submissions were heard from
both parties today (Wednesday) and the bail hearing continues tomorrow with
the State opposing our submissions,” Jeremiah Bamu the MP’s lawyer told the
Daily News.

The State is opposing the granting of bail to the accused,
who are being held at Mutare remand prison, saying they are facing a
‘serious’ charge. The 25 were arrested on political violence charges after
disturbances in Mwonzora’s consituency after the legislator had addressed a
rally.

Nyanga magistrate, Ignatius Mhene had granted Mwonzora and his
co-accused bail but the State invoked the infamous Section 121 of the
sub-section 3 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act which overrides the
magistrate’s ruling.

Bamu said the State’s submissions on Wednesday
were improperly done before the courts as the prosecution failed to serve
magistrate Mhene with their arguments which oppose his ruling to grant
Mwonzora and others bail. Bamu said Mhene should have been notified about
the State’s arguments or position in the High Court.

Mwonzora was
arrested outside Parliament more than two weeks ago on violence charges
while the other 24 were arrested in his Nyanga constituency.

Mwonzora’s
party, the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has complained that their officials and supporters are being
persecuted by the police whom they claim are partisan.

The MDC says the
police are harassing their party and claim the police are partisan to
President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.

In a related case, the MDC said
it’s Zhombe MP, Rodgers Tazviona and four party members remain held in
custody on charges of threatening a traditional chief.

“The bail
application by Zhombe MP, Hon. Rodgers Tazviona and four other MDC members
has been set for 23 March at the High Court after the lawyers made a bail
application yesterday (Tuesday). Hon. Tazviona was arrested last month on
trumped up charges of threatening a chief. He is still in custody,” the MDC
said.

President
Mugabe Skips International Investment Conference

Zimbabwean Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Finance Minister Tendai Biti and Investment
Minister Tapiwa Mashakada, among other officials, told conference delegates
that they should consider direct investment in the country despite the
climate of political uncertainty

Gibbs Dube | Washington 08 March
2011

An anticipated clash of economic and social philosophies failed
to materialize Tuesday at the Euromoney Investment Conference in Harare,
Zimbabwe, as President Robert Mugabe sent his apologies leaving Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to pitch the country's attractions to about 300
international investors.

Mr. Mugabe, who recently threatened to seize
foreign-owned firms if Western sanctions are not lifted, said he had an
earlier engagement in Harare.

Mr. Tsvangirai, Finance Minister Tendai
Biti and Investment Minister Tapiwa Mashakada, among other officials, told
conference delegates that they should consider direct investment in the
country despite considerable political uncertainty.

Mr. Tsvangirai
said Zimbabwe needs free and fair elections to attract foreign investment.
“We cannot attract foreign investors without fully implementing the Global
Political Agreement [for power sharing] signed by the three parties,” he
said.

Taking a shot at ZANU-PF, Mr. Tsvangirai said that one party in the
unity government party has not abandoned its culture of violence, leaving
investors skeptical.

British Ambassador Mark Canning, who attended
the opening ceremony, said the conference will do much to highlight
Zimbabwe’s economic potential.

Economist Eric Bloch said he believes
President Mugabe stayed away to avoid telling delegates his party wants to
seize foreign-owned firms.

Birth
of indigenisation super minister

IN May last year Public Service minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro
took umbrage at his MDC-T colleague Finance minister Tendai Biti’s
announcement that government had frozen civil servants’ salaries.

His
gripe was that the Finance minister was encroaching into his purview as
Labour minister. He warned Biti that “government did not operate on the
basis of super ministers”.

“All issues pertaining to the Ministry of
Public Service, i.e., remuneration issues, conditions of service, human
resources policy and management, etc, are the responsibility and central
mandate of the responsible minister and no one else,” Mukonoweshuro
said.

“This government does not operate on the basis of super ministers
who may frequently arrogate to themselves responsibilities that are neither
in their present province of competence nor designated
mandate.”

There is perhaps no greater evidence of this arrogation of
overarching powers by a minister than the influence that Indigenisation and
Youth minister Saviour Kasukuwere is exerting across portfolios in the unity
government.

Biti’s actions, like those of any Finance minister, are
bound to encroach into domains of other ministries. His colleagues, as was
the case with Mukonoweshuro, can however publicly censure him for
trespassing. Kasukuwere is however living a charmed life. Who in Zanu PF can
publicly raise a finger against him at the moment?

He has become a
super minister who currently has the nation in a spin as he throws his
weight around, and in many an instance, literally.

This newfound power
has been given impetus by President Robert Mugabe, constantly urging him to
target certain firms for expropriation.

He now carries the President’s
brief on the indigenisation project and isn’t he loving it; like a kid with
a new toy.

His boisterous behaviour at a business dialogue organised by
our sister paper the Zimbabwe Independent last year, was no flash in the
pan. He is enjoying his place in the sun.

As the presidential wind
blows under Kasukuwere’s wings, what is more than apparent is the power that
the minister now wields in other portfolios including those that are held by
his colleagues in Zanu PF.

He can decide investment policy and who
invests in banking, mining, industry, farming, tourism and infrastructure
development.

All these sectors are manned by whole ministers who now have
Kasukuwere as an unseen guest at all meetings with potential
investors.

His feverish behaviour however, we are told, is an agitation
for equitable distribution of wealth.

But cynics like myself are
worried whether with his newfound political power, Kasukuwere would achieve
the desired goals of wealth distribution and at the same time ensure that
the economy continues on the recovery path.

Political ambition and
sweeping legislative power are not always the right ingredients to achieving
prudent development in a country.

Kasukuwere’s political power is not
just resident in the word of the President but also in the indigenisation
law, which is laced with clauses that appear to have been crafted to
transfer wealth to a specific group of people.

The minister, under
the law, is empowered to come up with a register of persons who are
potential beneficiaries of controlling interests in non-indigenous
businesses.

The law is silent on the criteria set out for the purpose of
determining who ought to be entered on the database and who ought to be
excluded.

Researcher Derek Matyszak, writing on the Idasa website, says:
“The legislation merely provides that if the minister is satisfied that the
application is made in good faith, the applicant shall be registered in the
database.”

Does this not leave the minister with fairly broad
discretionary powers as to who may be put forward as a participant in an
indigenisation scheme?

That is not all. The law also gives the minister
what Matyszak refers to as “unfettered discretion to decide whether to
approve or reject an indigenisation plan or to attach conditions to such a
plan”.

Matyszak adds: “This arrangement leaves the possibility of plans
being accepted or rejected on the basis of who — rather than what — is
proposed in the indigenisation plan. Rejection may be based upon the extent
to which the terms of indigenisation are beneficial to the person identified
as a partner rather than whether they meet the criteria set out in the
Act.

Although the exercise of the discretion ought to depend upon
compliance with legislated indigenisation requirements, cronyism and
corruption in this regard will be extremely difficult to prove or
prevent.

“By placing the procedure in the hands of the minister rather
than the board and by giving the minister such a broad discretion, the
legislation thus appears purposely designed to allow the minister the
possibility of compelling, against the threat of rejection of an
indigenisation plan, the inclusion of selected individuals identified by the
minister in indigenisation plans and the inclusion of such persons only on
terms which the minister deems sufficiently beneficial. Oddly, and
significantly, no appeal lies against a ministerial decision to reject an
indigenisation plan other than in limited specified
circumstances.”

The rejection of indigenisation plans has already
started.

The jury is still out on whether the rejections have anything to
do with political patronage.

What’s fundamental though is that
Kasukuwere as a super minister needs to tread with caution in the employment
of the power in his grasp.

His peers cannot challenge him lest they are
accused of rebelling against the executive.

The MDC side of the unity
government is usually dismissed as insidious elements who have always
opposed President Mugabe’s empowerment policies.

On two key moments
lately, President Mugabe has openly urged Kasukuwere to unleash the
indigenisation project on select firms.

This is usually all one needs to
be a super minister: Mugabe’s word.

As he exercises the presidential
will, he should be mindful of history.

A number of his colleagues in
government have travelled this road before.

Jonathan Moyo, Joseph Made,
Didymus Mutasa and RBZ governor Gideon Gono have at some point in their
lives earned this uncanny distinction of supermen.

It lasted as long as
their principal allowed them to bask in the glory.

There is a game
President Mugabe plays very effectively. It is disempowering one group to
empower his man of the moment. - This article was first published in the
NewsDay

Zanu (PF)
Senator Seeks Class Action Against EU Over Sanctions

Harare, March 09, 2011 – A Zanu (PF) Senator Guy Georgias
has moved a motion in Parliament for the inclusive government to institute a
class action against the European Union (EU) at the European Court of
Justice (ECJ) against the contentious targeted measures slammed on President
Robert Mugabe and his inner cabal.

In a motion before the senate,
Georgias, demanded that the Western powers withdraw the targeted measures.
President Mugabe and his Zanu (PF) party insist the sanctions are full-blown
and not targeted.

“Disturbed that the real victims of the sanctions are
the ordinary and poor people of Zimbabwe, aware that the sanctions on
Zimbabwe are punitive, generally political and a tool for the continued
dominationof developing countries, I now therefore resolve to call on the
inclusive government to constitute a class action against the EU at the
European Court of Justice (ECJ) of First Instance against the illegal,
unjustified, hostile and racial sanctions,” reads part of Georgias
motion.

He demanded that the West withdraw the measures as well as an end
to what the Zanu (PF) politician describe as the West’s propaganda against
Zimbabwe.

“(The inclusive government should) mobilise international
support for the repeal of the sanctions and unlocking of bilateral aid and
financial support as well as international good will,” read the
motion.

The EU, which imposed the sanctions in 2001 citing a flawed
elections and gross human rights abuses, has maintained that it will not
remove the measures due to on-going human rights violation although
inFebruary it struck off 35 Zanu (PF) officials as a gesture of good will.

Zanu
abusing Govt - US ambassador

HARARE - Zanu (PF) is currently abusing the government with
adverts in newspapers and on the state radio attacking the so-called
sanctions and people in the country who do no ascribe to their views, the
United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray said.

Since the
launch of the so-called anti-sanctions campaign, Zanu (PF) has been running
full length adverts in the state media with a government
insignia.

"It is very disappointing to see full page ads from the
Zanu (PF) Information Department under the heading 'Government of Zimbabwe'
and adorned with the great Zimbabwean coat of arms. Zanu (PF) is a political
party, which does not speak for the government of this great country.
Additionally, Zanu (PF), which is part of the government, has its own symbol
that is quite distinct from the Zimbabwean coat of arms," said
Ray.

The former ruling party last week formed an anti-sanctions committee
that is chaired by Vice President John Nkomo. However, other members in the
Inclusive Government have distanced themselves from the sham describing it
as a Zanu (PF) project.

Acting President Nkomo said in a statement
that thousands of people who were forced to attend the anti-sanctions launch
demonstrated that they were against sanctions.

"This exceptional
support was an emphatic statement to Britain, the European Union, America
and to all those interests which have slapped sanctions against the people
of Zimbabwe," said Nkomo.

In reality there are no sanctions on the people
of Zimbabwe, but rather targeted measures on a few individuals. USA, America
and Britain in particular have played a significant role in extending aid to
the people of Zimbabwe.

Many people in both rural and urban
communities have benefited significantly from USAID and other western
donors. Yet Zanu (PF) says that sanctions are "an attack on all
Zimbabweans."

The United States dispelled the anti-sanctions rhetoric as
unfounded.

Said Ray, "the ZANU-PF Information Department is using
misinformation and completely unrelated facts to mislead the public. The
facts are:

1. For more than ten years, Zimbabwe has been ineligible to
receive any type of international loan, regardless of U.S. and EU opinions,
due to its leaders' failure to make payments on its debt. Zimbabwe's unpaid
debts to the African Development Bank, IMF, and World Bank put a stop to
lending long before there were sanctions.

2. Zimbabwe's current
political and economic environment, including fresh threats from the
President on his birthday to take over established companies, has a chilling
effect on new investment, both domestic and international. Banks and other
businesses are responsible to their share holders, and find it increasingly
difficult to justify investing in such a high risk environment. Only
economic stabilizationand political sanity will change this.

3. Fewer
than 120 Zimbabweans are named on the legal U.S. sanctions list, almost all
of them Zanu (PF) leaders who had a hand in political violence against their
fellow citizens. They may not travel to the U.S. or do business with U.S.
companies because Americans do not want them to enjoy the fruits of their
corruption on our soil. This does not hurt other Zimbabweans. What hurts
the rest of the country is the corruption, mismanagement, and lack of social
investment that has brought development to a standstill.

The former
ruling party has exclusive control of the state media and abuses it to
attack Mugabe's political rivals.

U.S. Disagrees with Zimbabwe Foreign Minister's Comments on Iran Sanctions

MR.
CROWLEY:
Well, it’s really about the future and the autonomy and effectiveness of the
bank.

Secretary
Clinton this morning met with Australian Prime Minister Gillard. They talked
about a number of issues, but in detail about the situation in Afghanistan and
the fact that Australia continues to be an important partner in the NATO-led
mission. They also talked about ongoing developments in the Middle East as well
as Australia’s recovery from recent devastating floods.

Turning
to Cote d’Ivoire, on Monday evening, the television controlled by former
President Gbagbo announced that the purchase and sale of coffee and cocoa will
be undertaken exclusively by the Gbagbo regime. His plan to nationalize the
cocoa industry of Cote d’Ivoire, which is the world’s largest supplier of cocoa
beans, amounts to theft. It is another desperate act on his campaign to cling to
power. You’ll recall that President Ouattara imposed a ban on cocoa exports in
January. He renewed that ban in February, and we continue to be gratified that
leading U.S. importers continue to respect the ban as established by President
Ouattara.

Staying
in the region, we noticed yesterday that Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Mumbengegwi
indicated that in his view, the existing sanctions regime against Iran is, as he
called it, unfair and hypocritical. We disagree. Working with Iran on uranium
extraction violates international nonproliferation obligations as well as the
threat posed by – to the international – to national security by the assistance
to Iran’s nuclear program. Such activity violates obligations contained in U.N.
Security Council Resolutions 1737 and 1929.

But
this is all part of an ongoing effort by Iran to escape its growing isolation by
offering to bolster trade and other economic ties with receptive governments,
such as Zimbabwe. The foreign minister of Zimbabwe is entitled to his opinion,
but the Government of Zimbabwe is still bound by its commitments to the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty and relevant UN Security Council
resolutions.

QUESTION: Is
there anything you can do to stop that?

MR.
CROWLEY: Well
--

QUESTION: Does
it stop it, or is there any penalty for Zimbabwe?

MR.
CROWLEY:
Well, there are potential international penalties, although obviously, Zimbabwe
has its own issues with the international community, including the United
States.

QUESTION:
(inaudible)

MR.
CROWLEY:
Well, there are ramifications for countries that decline to observe their
international obligations under UN Security Council resolutions. I mean, what
we’re indicating here is that it’s incumbent upon Zimbabwe to heed its own
obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

QUESTION:
(Inaudible) I’m trying to get a sense of what they might face if they go ahead
with it.

MR.
CROWLEY:
Well, I don’t have a catalog for you other than we are indicating our concern
about the statements that suggest that Zimbabwe would be open to cooperating
with Iran in ways that violate UN Security Council
resolutions.

QUESTION: Does
the U.S. have any evidence that they are doing this
already?

MR.
CROWLEY: I
don’t know that we have any evidence that there are any operational uranium
mines in Zimbabwe. But certainly, we have ongoing concerns about the behavior of
Zimbabwe, its own human rights abuses. This is a – it would be quite a match for
Iran and Zimbabwe to cooperate.

Veld
fires destroyed timber

HARARE - Veld Fires emanating from newly resettled farmers last
year destroyed a total of 1 694.3 hectares of timber in Manicaland province,
it has been revealed.

The statistics released by the Timber Producers
Federation (TPF) cited Chimanimani and Nyanga districts as the most affected
areas. The TPF statistics show that between July and November last year ,
257 forest fires were reported and destroyed 9 586 hectares of timber which
constitutes 12 per cent of Zimbabwe's pine population.

Pine is grown
on a 25-year rotation and the area affected by the fires was equivalent to
what would normally be harvested in a three year period. Fires emanating
from neighbouring newly resettled areas destroyed a total of 1 694.3
hectares, with honey hunters and human negligence also contributing to the
veld fires.

TPF described last year as one of the most affected in the
history of timber plantations in Manicaland which is also the hub of the
timber industry in the country. Illegal settlers have set up pole and dagger
huts in most timber plantations in Chimanimani and Nyanga.

Only
30 signed “sanctions” petition

The circus is back in town with the frog-marching of thousands
of poor people from several Harare suburbs and surrounding areas to witness
the launching of the Zanu (PF) anti-sanctions campaign. What a load of
utter rubbish. The ridiculous and meaningless petition was signed by less
than 30 people at the launch. The rest had been forced to simply come and
“witness” the event.Needless to say most of these people were very angry
at being forced to come and watch something that was totally of no redeeming
value to them and to this country. They hated Mugabe and Zanu (PF) for this
type of repression. I bet some of these people vowed never again to vote for
the former liberation party and its first secretary. The whole event was a
sweet vote for Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party come next
elections.This futile exercise was undertaken in order to impress upon the
ailing Mugabe that he was very popular with the masses in Zimbabwe, and that
his collapsed party had suddenly become very popular once again. Well,
nothing can be further from the truth, and good old Mugabe knows the
truth.He knows that the so-called anti-sanctions petition will not result in
the targeted sanctions and restrictive measures being lifted. He knows that
both the Sadc and the AU will simply pay lip service to the petition while
their member state delegates will be laughing their lungs out in the
corridors of good governance in their countries. Indeed, on the presentation
of the signed petition, with more than two million (forced and fictitious)
signatures, some of the leaders of the member states of the SADC and the AU
will realize that the old man has finally gone completely senile.The
petitioned countries are likely to frame the document and hang it in some of
their halls as classic examples of how they have fought against evil
dictators in Africa and elsewhere in the world. They are not going to review
their anti-dictatorship policies as a result of this piece of BS from the
Zimbabwean dictator. Is it not ironic that the petition was signed while
almost 100 supporters and leaders of some political parties and civic
organizations were either incarcerated or had court cases pending against
them courtesy of the Zanu Repressive Police (ZRP)?Several WOZA members
were also locked up and MDC-T meetings had been banned in Kadoma. It was
signed when there was a noticeable increase in incidents of Zanu (PF)
sponsored violence in some parts of the country. It was also signed when the
army had been deployed to several high-density suburbs in Harare. In other
words, the very conditions that had caused civilized countries to impose
sanctions and restrictive measures on Mugabe and his underlings had in fact
intensified by the time the ridiculous petition was signed.But the
futility and desperation of the whole circus was highlighted when the Prime
Minister and his two deputies were placed on the programme as some of the
dignitaries who were going to sing the rubbish. Thank God none of them even
bothered to show up at the venue rightly arguing that it was a Zanu (PF)
thing.Both the state mouthpiece aka the Herald and the sick ZBC had informed
the nation that the PM and his deputies were going to sign the self-serving
and partisan document. The number of people that were at the venue was aimed
at impressing Mugabe that it was now opportune to call an election which he
would win. Fortunately the geriatric has other sources of information and he
knows that he cannot win a free and fair election now or ever against
Tsvangirai and his unstoppable MDC-T. Get well soon, sekuru.

Harare
parking marshals working under police protection

Police in the capital, Harare, have had to be roped-in to
protect parking marshals, a day after a mob of ZANU PF youths seized
Easipark, a South African company contracted to manage parking and towing
services.

On Monday the youths raided the company premises and chased the
management team away claiming they were taking over under ZANU PF’s
so-called empowerment drive. Speaking to SW Radio Africa the Mayor of
Harare, Muchadeyi Masunda, told us the ‘disturbances’ were over by 11am of
the same day.

“This is not the first time we have had a brush with
this organization called ‘Upfumi Kuvadiki’. Sometime last month they
presented a petition making all sorts of demands. The message has been
conveyed to them in the clearest terms possible that there is simply no way
that we are going to be cajoled by anyone to breach an agreement that we
entered into with Easipark,” Masunda said.

Responding to claims from
the youths that their takeover was part of an empowerment drive for locals,
Masunda told us; “You can’t get an organization that is more indigenous than
the City of Harare.” Under the joint venture with the South Africa company
the City pockets 60 percent of the proceeds from parking and towing fees and
after 5 years will be able to take full control of the project.

One
of the Easipark managers confirmed that their marshals had resumed work
under police protection and they had been able to reopen their offices. With
the propaganda of the ‘empowerment drive’ having been achieved, police
spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed they protected Easipark on Tuesday and
warned the youths to desist from any violent takeover of the
firm.

Behind the scenes however, the Minister of Local Government
Ignatius Chombo and Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, have been inciting
the youths to continue agitating for the takeover. One of the youths
involved in Monday’s violent takeover confirmed they had the blessings of
Chombo and Kasukuwere and would meet the Mayor on Thursday to ‘discuss’
their takeover plans.

India's
Essar to Spend $750 Million to Revamp Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Mill

India’s
Essar Group took control of the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Co. in a deal that
will see the Zisco mill refurbished, said Welshman Ncube, the southern
African nation’s Industry Minister.

“In broad terms, the agreement
provides for Essar to take over and release the Zimbabwean government from
its debt obligations,” Ncube said in Harare, the capital, today. “Essar will
also complete all work relating to the re-lining of the blast furnaces and
coke oven batteries,” he said. Essar, through its Essar Africa Holdings Ltd.
unit, will invest $750 million in the first phase of the project, Ncube
added.

Zisco, which was state controled, hasn’t operated since 2004 when
it closed due to mounting debts and ageing equipment. Essar will have a 54
percent stake in the company, Ncube said.

Essar Africa’s Vice
Chairman Ravi Ruia said his company would have to first put in place “coal,
uninterrupted electricity supplies, transport and logistics” in order to re-
open the steel mill.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe blocked the sale of
Zisco to ArcelorMittal in June last year, saying the company was “too big”
for the country.

Essar, which won a subsequent bid for Zisco, plans to
produce steel within 12 to 15 months from now, Ruia said.

In a second
phase, Essar will rehabilitate the rail link between Redcliff-based Zisco
and the Hwange Colliery Co. in western Zimbabwe. Hwange is Zimbabwe’s
biggest digger of coal, which is needed to fire furnaces at Zisco’s
plant.

Essar will be the steelmaker’s biggest shareholder, with
government holding a minority 35 percent and the balance held by other
shareholders, Ncube said.

“Zisco is totally insolvent, with debts in
excess of $340 million. It has no value as a company and its debts exceed
its assets,” Ncube said, adding that most bidders valued the company at
about $45 million during the due diligence process.

The
Dilemma of farm labourers

Martin Kalembo and his family migrated to Zimbabwe in 1986
from Malawi when his country's economy was not doing well and hoped for a
better life there, they later found work on the farm of one white commercial
farmer where they became farm labourers. Zimbabwe Most of
Kalembo’s kinsmen later joined him after his communication with them that he
was now living a better life, as compared to their lives back home. However,
Kalembo was not the first from Malawi to migrate to Zimbabwe but other
foreign nationals from other neighbouring countries had also settled in the
Southern African country.

“I came here in 1986 after realizing that
life was now unbearable back home where we had to rely on begging to feed
the family. My fellow countrymen latter followed when I told them that life
here in Zimbabwe was better than the one we where leading back in Malawi,”
said Kalembo.

While most of the foreign nationals felt at home on
these farms as farm labourers, most of them had no positive identification
particulars like the national identity documents as they were not registered
through the Registrar of Births and Deaths, where Zimbabweans obtain their
identity documents. This has resulted in them failing to acquire identity
documents which are essential when acquiring formal education and
employment.

Despite having been a happy farm community at Major
Brown farm in Glendale, about 70 km North of the capital Harare, some very
sad faces could easily be noticed on the residents’ faces when this writer
visited the place.

Asked to explain their ordeal, most former
farm workers pointed out to the land redistribution which was radically led
by Zanu (PF) and war veterans as the agents to their demise as the current
new black farmers who took over from the commercial white farmers do no pay
them reasonably after working for them.

Little
wage

“We used to send our kids to school from money earned from
these farms but with the new black farmers, it is totally impossible to send
them to school because they pay as little a dollar for a day’s work,” said
another farm worker at Major Brown.

One social analyst Dr Abel
Kasi described the current scenario facing farm labourers as a bid by the
new farmers to breed cheap farm labour through paying slave wages that will
not allow them to send their children to school.

“In my own
view these new farmers have realized that if the farm labourers send their
children to school they will eventually run out of labour so they want keep
the farm labourers and their children uneducated so that there is a constant
supply of labour,” said Kasi.

However, Dr Kasi’s analysis was
somewhat a reflection of the situation on the ground as the farm labourers’
children of school going age are also actively working on the farms owned by
the new farmers in a bid to sustain themselves as they cannot be sent to
school. This is however a violation of the children’s rights as enshrined in
the United Nations Convention on the rights of the Child in which Zimbabwe
is signatory.

In an interview with Africanews.com,
thirteen-year-old Maria Saini who went only up to grade three said she had
to help her parents provide for their family given that the money they
receive from the farmers is not enough.

“If I work for one
month, I will get twenty five dollars while both my parents will get $30
each on the grounds that they are adults. This is however not enough to take
care of our food, clothing, and school among other essentials,” said
Maria.

Child labour

Labor and social services Minister
however indicated that the practice of child labor was against the laws of
Zimbabwe as well as some other regional and international conventions to
which the country is signatory.

“It is against the laws of this
country to have a child who is less than 18 years of age going to work, it
amounts to child labour and it is not acceptable here in Zimbabwe,” she
said.

The spokesperson of the country’s General Agricultural
Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), Tapiwa Zivira said the
practice of allowing children to work is against their rights. He also
distanced his organization from the practice.

“GAPWUZ observes
the law and values children and their rights as such it is very much against
the practice of child labour and none of them form part of our membership,”
he said.

“We are also part of the Coalition Against Child Labour in
Zimbabwe (CACLAZ) which seeks to end child labour by raising awareness and
engaging in projects aimed at bringing children back to school,” said
Zivira.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has set the
minimum age limit for anyone to be admitted into the employment industry at
18 years of age which is also Zimbabwe’s legal age of majority.

WOZA
leader Jenni Williams on Question Time

SW Radio Africa journalist
Lance Guma speaks to Jenni Williams who leads the Women of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA) pressure group. Williams responds to questions sent in by SW Radio
Africa listeners using facebook, twitter, skype, e-mail and texts. Will
protests as seen in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya ever take place in Zimbabwe?
She also responds to accusations that WOZA are not team players and won’t
engage with other pressure groups.

Lance Guma: Good evening Zimbabwe and
welcome to Question Time, the programme where you the listener get to ask
the questions. Our guest this week is Jenni Williams who leads the Women of
Zimbabwe Arise, WOZA pressure group. Jenni thank you for joining
us.

Jenni Williams: Thank you for having me on the programme even though
you are going to question me so harshly.

Guma: Now the last two weeks
have been dominated by the arrest of close to a hundred activists and WOZA
members have also been locked up by the regime. Let’s start the programme
with an update on what has happened so far.

Williams: Yes, we are a
little bit upset or depressed right now because we believe that magistrates
are to be on strike in Bulawayo and unfortunately their timing is bad
because my seven colleagues who were just on their way to appear in court
and we also believe that the police are being very nasty and wanting to deny
my colleagues bail even after torturing them and abusing them and denying
them so many rights in these last 48 hours.

Guma: What do you think is
the motive for this crackdown? Because it started in Nyanga, they arrested
Douglas Mwonzora, they arrested Gwisai and the other 45 activists, Job
Sikhala, WOZA members. Why is this happening?

Williams: Well this is not
something new. This is ZANU PF that everyone should know, operates on
violence, the campaigns are always motivated by violence and propaganda
issues and this is a regime that is sanctioning the liberties of their own
people and so they will target civil rights activists, they will target
human rights defenders because they know that those people are the ones
educating and empowering people with their knowledge of their rights and
getting them to begin to imagine a Zimbabwe where there’s no fear, no
violence, where they can actually leave home at 8 o’clock and go to a job
and come back at 5 and know that they are planning that on Friday they will
do this or that, they will enjoy this or that with their families and this
is a regime that doesn’t want that. They don’t want empowered
people.

Guma: Lawton Bhila from Bulawayo wants to know from you whether
protests seen in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya will ever happen in Zimbabwe and
if not, why?

Williams: Well I can’t say whether they will happen in
Zimbabwe or not because I would need a crystal ball for that but what I can
say is that from what I understand of what is happening in north Africa and
what is happening right now in other parts of Africa is a sign of ordinary
citizens becoming empowered, getting knowledge and understanding of a deeper
kind of democracy and then that deepening in that global village, people
then begin to say we want this and they begin to look at options of how they
are going to get it.

And the world is becoming more and more conscious of
the power, people power, of the power of non-violence, of the power of
numbers, human resources, people committed to binding together in unity to
deliver something and people are also becoming aware that it’s not only an
election where you go and you give power or you remove power but it’s also
through voting with your feet in peaceful protest.

And I feel that
people have to understand that the events that we see on the television are
not just things that started when we started seeing them on the television.
This is years of mobilisation, it’s years of work-shopping, meetings, it’s
educating people, it’s providing forums for people where they can begin to
discuss and understand issues.

And so its not a one time event, it’s
years of mobilisation and we need, in Zimbabwe I feel that civic society,
social rights activists are not as committed to that hard underground work
that needs being done. They just think that if they just send an email
saying Million Citizen March that people will suddenly just be millions in
the streets. It doesn’t work like that and it did not work like that in
Tunisia, Egypt or any of these other African countries.

Guma: Now
you’ve just raised an issue that we obviously would like to ask – the
Million Citizen March that was organised on FaceBook. The regime of course
deployed soldiers, police, they made quite a presence to try and pre-empt
this – in your view, why do you think that failed? If at all someone was
behind that who was genuine, why did it fail?

Williams: Well I would
really question whether the person behind it was genuine. If they were
genuine they would have started to do mobilisation on the ground which there
was no evidence of in any way, shape or form, so I really wouldn’t want to
say a Million Citizen March, if it was genuine because we are questioning
that, why it failed because I don’t think anything was ever done.

You
know a lot of people do not have access to internet, FaceBook, cell phones
and even if they are, Zimbabweans are extremely stressed and busy committed
to surviving on a day-to-day basis. You have to get by them on these issues
and so I would say it was failed mobilisation.

Guma: Martin Mabandla
emailing from Hwange has issues with WOZA and accuses you of not being team
players. His question is why a prominent group like WOZA doesn’t seek to
work with other pressure groups like the NCA and others?

Williams: We
do work with NCA. We have worked with NCA for many years. We are very
disappointed that when push came to shove and we started our constitutional
reform process, NCA dumped WOZA and said they were not going to be involved
and we tried to persuade them. We said at least, if you are not going to be
involved, help us with civic education because you are our partners on
constitutional reform, but they were not interested in doing that so I think
he is, number one, un-informed.

I think he also needs to understand that
we are part of many different networks but I would want him to question,
maybe clarify his question more because I can only respond as I’ve responded
because we work with many other organisations.

Guma: NCA aside, in
terms of your interaction with the other groups, are you satisfied that you
seek to engage the others?

Williams: Absolutely satisfied but maybe he
would want to see us in the streets with banners saying we are WOZA, we are
this, we are that and if that is what he wants, can we please engage those
organisations and ask them why they are not in the street with us and not
ask us.

Guma: And the next question obviously is a follow-up from Norman
Mudarikiri and I suppose the point he is trying to make is that Zimbabwean
groups in general, not specifically WOZA, do not work together, so his
question is, is it a question of competition for resources? His text message
says – all these pressure groups are more interested in looking better than
the others so they can receive funding on their own. Do you see that being
the case, Jenni?

Williams: Well you know unfortunately I think he is,
you know there is some truth to that and I remain engaging and in meetings
and speak to many different civic leaders to say let’s put competition and
personalities aside and let’s try and get by in and come up with a group of
issues that we can all buy into equally and we can then come up with a
combined plan of action and implement those things but it’s not very easy,
especially I think, the international donor community sometimes make it
difficult, they also play divide and rule games so it’s very difficult, I
can’t completely discount that that is a problem.

Guma: You’re almost
prophetic in your answer there because the follow-up question is centred on
donors. We have a question from the UK, comes from a guy called Amos who
says – don’t you think donors themselves are the problem? He says they are
guilty of funding duplicate projects which are mostly non-confrontational
and he says this is where the lack of focus comes from.

Williams:
Yes, I mean it’s also unfortunate that even in this last week, people just
become excited, they see things like the Million Citizen March, they see
posters created and all sorts and they get excited, thinking oh someone is
finally doing something and they forget that they should go and scratch
beneath that pretty surface and see whether there’s any mobilisation on the
ground.

And I think sometimes maybe the donors are also frustrated by us
Zimbabweans and the blame should be mostly on us as Zimbabweans – we are not
doing enough but we constantly want others outside or international to do
more for us. We must do more and then somewhere along the way there will be
a shift in the way the donors engage us as Zimbabweans.

Guma: We have
the ZCTU, ZINASU, Crisis Coalition, WOZA and the NCA who among themselves
represent a sizeable mobilisation front, it should surely be obvious no one
group can make an impact on their own, so why are there no attempts at
changing the dynamics and creating a united democratic front of
sorts?

Williams: Well there are many attempts that are happening
behind the scenes to do that. I think the only problem that we have as WOZA
is we remain 100% apolitical and non-partisan and in the past for example,
the Save Zimbabwe campaign was a coalition of civics and the MDC and so we
could not be a part of that process because we would have been violating our
mandate to remain a watchdog and that becomes a challenge for us.

So
I think we remain trying to engage other people as they try to talk about
forming these platforms and say to them that if we are going to form a
proper platform styled in the way the UDF was, we need to make sure that we
are solely membership-based and the membership of civic organisation-based
and believe me, MDC or the other political parties who call themselves
pro-democracy parties to fight on their platforms and leave us to fight on a
civic, people driven platform.

Guma: Do you think also maybe within
some of these groups, there’s a lot of in-fighting which has weakened the
groups? Like ZINASU for example – you have two factions there. So is the
in-fighting, and we even see this within the MDC where we have I think four
MDC factions now, is this the problem – in-fighting?

Williams: Yah
there is too much in-fighting but also people lose focus too easily. They
remain talking about positions and power and they forget that the mandate of
what they do and how they do it should be coming from membership and I think
that’s the problem – there’s a lack of balancing of the scales between what
the executives, the programmes they are driving and how the memberships
input into those programmes.

It’s very, very sad to see, very sad indeed.
For example, civic society its very sad that we allowed ourselves to split
over who is taking part in the constitution and who is taking charge. Some
of those things I think are unnecessary, those issues that divided
us.

Guma: Now Priscilla in Mutare says there is a suggestion that
pressure groups in Zimbabwe do not want the crisis to end as this would mean
an end to their funding and her question to you is – do you buy into that
argument?

Williams: Well I don’t know, I can’t answer for others but hey,
I’m really looking forward to my three children having grandchildren and I
want to be sitting in the sun watching my grandchildren playing so I can’t
imagine why I would want a crisis to continue.

Guma: Tinashe from
Gweru has a question on the WOZA membership and wants to know whether it’s
meant for women only?

Williams: It initially started for women only
because we feel that it is women who are marginalised in Zimbabwe and we
also felt it was women who didn’t have space to speak out on bread and
butter or bread and roses issues as we call them and women still remain
marginalised, still remain having an unequal voice in all government and
civic platforms and so they remain our one priority of people to mobilise,
to capacitate so that they take their place equally in society alongside the
men.

But we have a lot of male members who are long-term human rights
defenders with us; we sometimes even call them our sisters in a respectful
way and so yes, we have allowed space for men to be part of the movement
because we will not discriminate on them as we have been discriminated as
women by a long-term patriarchy.

Guma: Do you find that women are
more willing to participate in street actions than men because when we
usually see pictures of your protests, there are usually more women
demonstrating? Where are the men in Zimbabwe?

Williams: Yah women
unfortunately in my experience are more able to grasp practical issues and
to be able to have those issues be dominant in the things that they do and
so they will march and they will overcome fear, to be brave because they
will know that what is at stake is my family’s future. And in some way the
makeup of a woman, it seems that she is more capable of overcoming fear, to
balance and to be in the street on issues that she thinks affect the
family.

Sometimes our brothers and our fathers don’t have that capacity
to balance the scales of issues and overcome fear and sometimes also they
end up being too quick, because of their egos, the way God made them, to
respond to violence with violence whereas to a woman she immediately will
look at a non-violent method and so the style of non-violence, we feel, is
more in character with a woman but that’s not to say that there can be men
who also are trained, who also commit and who also can be 100% very active
civil disobedience and non-violent activists.

Guma: We have a bit of
a sour email here from Jacob in Chegutu who says WOZA is not made up of
genuine activists but paid activists. He says at every demonstration,
activists are paid so this is the motivation, you are not a grassroots
movement. What’s your answer to him?

Williams: Please can Jacob send me a
text message or send me an email. I will invite him to join one of the next
demonstrations and then he can be face to face, shoulder to shoulder, hand
to hand with the real genuine activists who have the issues at heart who are
not motivated or have money in their mind. And that is a challenge I will
give to him and only then will he either re-phrase his question to me or
else then I will be willing to ask him what he saw himself.

Guma: Now
final question Jenni comes from Masvingo, this is Tonderai. Tonderai says
you have been demonstrating for years now with the same outcome which is
beatings and arrests and nothing has changed, so is it not time to change
your strategy?

Williams: Yes we are currently looking at escalating the
methods of non-violence, the methods of civil disobedience we are doing. We
will do that but I think sure, one must not forget one major thing about
WOZA and the work we do, we are not fighting a revolution, we are fighting
an evolution. He is not looking at the change in the human rights defenders
we have capacitated and empowered in all our nine years of
operation.

He’s not looking at the confidence and personal development
and increasing of knowledge and understanding of democracy that has happened
in the hearts and minds of our activists over the years and our growing
membership because people understand the need for personal empowerment, to
be able to understand how governments should work and that is what people
don’t understand.

We may be in the street and you may feel that we
have just been beaten and arrested and you don’t understand the opportunity
we have given people to exercise their rights and to taste for that moment
that they are in the street, for that moment they are arrested, that they
have done something to uplift themselves to be free, to feel free by doing
something that equates to freedom.

Guma: Now Jenni people who want to
take part in the WOZA activities, how do they do that?

Williams: They
can email us giving us their full names, physical address, phone numbers.
They have to be brave enough to be upfront with us about who they are, where
they live, what their phone number is and what it is they want, feel they
can contribute to WOZA or what they require us to help them with.

If
they don’t send an email and they are as clear as that, we’ll assume it’s an
intelligence employee or a CIO sending us an e-mail. If they send us that
email and we detect they are genuine, there will be someone who will visit
them and explain about the very important values that we have in our
organisation and explain about strategic non-violence.

Guma: Well
Zimbabwe, that was Jenni Williams who leads the Women of Zimbabwe Arise,
WOZA pressure group taking your questions on Question Time. Jenni, thank you
so much for being our guest this week.

Williams: Thank you very much for
having me and I appreciate the questions and look forward to continued
engagement.

FACTBOX-Foreign
companies in Zimbabwe

March 9
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe will set up a sovereign wealth fund to own 51 percent
stakes of mining companies, effectively nationalising half the country's key
resources sector, a government minister said. [ID:NLDE7280NL]

Last week,
President Robert Mugabe threatened a takeover of foreign firms and a boycott
of products to retaliate against sanctions placed on him and his ZANU-PF
party. [ID:nLDE7210K4]

Following is a list of some major foreign-owned
companies operating in Zimbabwe, according to a company
registry: